Crystal Clear
by Sky's Breaker
Summary: Crystal had a hard life. Not as hard as some may think, but still, it was hard. If you had someone who was abusive in your life, it was easier to detect it if there were physical scars. But when the only things that are left behind are psychological, then it was a bit harder. When the Autobots enter her life, things get harder before they get better. AU slight for Ironhide alive.
1. Approach

Chapter One

AN: Agh, yet another story! I know, bad me, right? ^.^ However, when inspiration strikes, it can get hard to put it in a storage box, especially for me. Also, one *cough*me*cough* may or may not be avoiding getting some college homework done.

Now, this story goes back to some painful memories for me, and whilst I shall stick to the truth mostly, keep in mind that there will be some fiction to it. This will also be taking place just shortly after DOTM (Dark of the Moon), and seeing as I have no idea what the weather is like in places like Chicago and Washington, D.C., I'm sticking it at around spring/summer of '11, so that means back to grade 11 I go! (Whoopdi-frickin-do)

Also, I apologize in advance for any swearing that is written. Most won't be until later unless Cybertronian, since I'm trying to stick close to reality, aside from, you know, everything.

Now, go read, and maybe review or fave or alert? Don't feel obliged to, it's alright, as I can see people read it anyway from the views. Other people might not, but I *gets mouth covered and effectively shuts up*

Ironhide: I thought the squishy would never shut up.

-:-

A teen of sixteen sighed as she overheard everyone talking in school. From the sounds of it, something major had happened in the States, and something tragic at that. Was she surprised? Not at all; her father and she had frequent discussions about how the 'reign' of the States would eventually end, just like every other empire in history had. If all of the attacks and wars in the past ten years were any indicator, the time would be approaching quicker than some thought.

She didn't know the specifics, as almost no one had the same story. She would have to wait until she had gotten home to check the news channel. She, unlike most, if not all, students, did not have a cell phone. She had a computer, but that was to stay at home and wasn't allowed to connect to the internet. All she had to carry around with her was a cheap MP3 player that had cost her ten dollars and a DSi her mother had given her for graduating grade nine.

Shrugging her shoulders, she headed to her first class of the day, American Sign Language. She enjoyed it enough, though she didn't choose it. When she had transferred over the summer from one school to this one, she had gotten her schedule and saw that she had a free period. It was no surprise that she had one, as her last school had allowed grade eleven and twelve students to have a free period. The new school, however, didn't.

Therefore, she had to choose something, and as her stepmom wouldn't let her take a _verbal_ language course, like German or Japanese, and as she had taken Spanish in the first semester, ASL was the only option.

All around her, the one word that was consistent with what everyone was saying was 'alien'. If what people said was true, which it very well may not be, she had a few 'I told you so's to hand out. However, those would have to wait until after school, and after stage production, as it was a Tuesday.

Most of the time, she hated Tuesdays, as stage production was a pain, but as of late, with the school play of Alice in Wonderland with a Woodstock twist to it was approaching in a few weeks' time, and everyone in that class had to pull weekends in order to get it all done.

The next few classes would be spent painting the set floor, a red and white wavered checkered pattern. That was, of course, after all the cutting of wood with jigsaws. At first, she was scared; being handed a power tool with little to no experience and expected to use it effectively was strange, but fun and dangerous.

However, all that mattered now was ASL, and learning to communicate with the deaf or hearing impaired. The bell rang and she sat down in class the moment after, not caring who sat beside her. Ever since she had started school, she was too shy to make any friends, and the one friend she had was a girl she had slightly known from her previous school.

It didn't matter what class she had, she never hung out with anyone aside from her one friend at lunch. And even then, sometimes her friend had other commitments to attend to.

The teen girl was snapped out of her day dreams when the teacher walked in and addressed the class in sign. After explaining what they would be doing today, she began to take attendance. The teen girl sighed before saying "here" when the teacher said her name, Crystal. Her last name, Charbaneau, sometimes made her the first on the attendance, depending on what class she took.

The class was fun enough, because it was probably the only class they played games on a daily basis, got to go for nature walks as the school was backed up against a dormant volcano, and got to study outside. However, there were times when she did wish she could draw on the side of her paper and just listen, even though this was a very visual course.

After another three hours of sign language, it was lunch. It was nothing special, aside from bumping into a new kid at the school. Going against what her heart was telling her to, Crystal gave the new kid a smile and helped her find her class after lunch. As it turned out, the new student had been placed in her class; Earth Science.

Knowing how the new girl felt, she asked her name and if she wanted to eat lunch with her. The new girl nodded, stating that her name was Noelle. Crystal gave Noelle a nice smile and led the way to a hallway just past the courtyard.

There, Crystal's friend, Elicia, was waiting, sitting on the ground scrolling through her phone for something.

The two friends smiled at one another in greeting and Crystal introduced Noelle to Elicia. After sitting, Crystal noticed that Noelle didn't pull anything from her bag or had something to eat at all.

"Did you need some food? I can share some of mine," Crystal said, digging into a brown paper bag. Ever since she was little, since her family was considered to be in a tight budget, the school district offered the 'brown bag' lunch program. Crystal was grateful, because it was different every day, and it tasted good, aside from the cheese and roast beef sandwich she sometimes got.

Noelle shook her head, black hair falling into her face. "No, I ate already."

Crystal smiled. "Okay," she said then turned to Elicia and started asking questions like if she knew what the entire school was abuzz with that morning.

Elicia looked at Crystal like she was an alien for a minute, then it occurred to her that she had no phone, no way to access information at all. "There was an attack on Chicago over the weekend. The city was basically flattened, and everyone is saying, and there's so many photos of them, that giant metal aliens did it."

Crystal snorted. "Well, I just hope they don't come to Canada. I mean, sure, we're the second largest country in the world, but why attack a place that has like 35 million people. Strategically speaking, if aliens wanted to make a bad statement, I would think eastern Asia would be the more likely place to strike."

Elicia rolled her eyes. "I guess. All the bad aliens are dead, that's what officials are saying. They're also saying that the 'good' aliens won."

"Wait, good aliens?"

Elicia nodded. "Why don't you go look it up in the library? I can take Noelle to her next class."

"We've got the same class; Noelle, have you seen the library? It's nothing impressive, just like a lot of the schools, but it's something." Without waiting, Crystal stood up and grabbed Noelle's hand to lead her down the hall, but not before flashing Elicia a goodbye smile.

Noelle took her hand from Crystal before taking in a deep breath; _I can't let her find out too much_, she thought to herself while following the teen.

Upon arriving at the library, Crystal scouted out a free computer and logged on with a few keystrokes. Opening up the schools default internet browser and going to the search engine Google, she typed in 'Chicago attack 2011' and hit the enter button vigorously.

The page loaded with the top search results, and Crystal clicked on the images button. Hundreds upon hundreds of images taken from cell phones and uploaded to social media websites showed, some blurry, some quite clear.

Noelle scanned over the images in dread; there was no way the governments of this planet could wipe the internet clean without any suspicion being risen. It was apparent that their secret was out, and that the entire human race would have to live with the truth that there was extraterrestrial beings sharing their planet.

She also thought that most humans would be afraid, but as she monitored Crystal's reactions, they were anything but.

Instead, Crystal looked and leaned into the screen with more interest than before. This was amazing in her mind. Aliens, actual aliens had come to earth, and had apparently had an argument. Giant metal beings appeared to tower over the humans in the photos, making them slightly scary to some.

Unable to quench her thirst for information, Crystal clicked the back button a few times and got back to the page that held web links to online articles about the event. She clicked on a few, learning the details the media were allowed to disclose in a heartbeat.

However, the bell rang soon after, so Crystal logged off and led Noelle out of the library to the science hallway.

Earth Science, along with Social Studies, was her favourite class. It, as well as dealing with the earth, had a few sections on outer space. Although, as much as she loved learning about it, she wasn't ever going to go into space given the chance; too many space movies.

"So, Noelle, why did you want to take this class?" Crystal asked as she sat in her seat up front.

Noelle looked at the wall for a minute; _come on, think of something!_ she thought to herself. "I really like this subject."

Crystal nodded. "Cool, me too. I'll talk to the teacher and see if you can join me for the current project."

Just then, the teacher walked in, and immediately noticed the new face. The class had about twelve students in it, because this was seen as the 'easy' science to take. That always made Crystal laugh. It was easy to get an A in it if you knew what you were doing.

The teen laughed a bit; to think she had almost failed chemistry the first semester. It wasn't that she didn't understand the subject; it was the homework. She didn't want to write a report on how a dead person figured out how to draw a diagram. However, she would have failed that class, as before the exam she was below passing. She must have gotten a high mark on the exam because her grade was bumped up to a passing mark by a few marks.

Noelle looked at Crystal with a weird look before being addressed by the teacher, who was Australian. "Hello," she said to the teacher.

The teacher grinned back. "Hello. I've seen you made a friend already. Crystal?" It took the other teen a moment to come to, but nodded at the teacher. "Would you mind if she joined you for the project?"

The teen grinned. "I was just going to ask."

And so, class went on, and Noelle soon found out that the 'project' was making a paper mache volcano. Before either of them knew it, it was time to go home. Crystal turned to Noelle. "It was nice meeting you today. Maybe you can hang out with Elicia and me tomorrow."

Noelle nodded and packed up her bag to leave. She watched Crystal leave through the door before waiting a few minutes then following suit. She walked to where a purple car was parked and got in it, before something strange happened. She disappeared.

::Nova to Optimus Prime. I have found her. The one you described to me with the unique Energon reading::

-:-

AN: Whew, that was fun, sorta, not really. I hate first chapters for a very good reason. Anyway, my lovely readers, thank you for taking your time, and I hope to post and write the next chapter sometime when I'm not sleep deprived.


	2. Lullaby

Chapter Two

AN: Yeah… I really don't want to write a college paper. As well, as much as it is shameful to say, my past has definitely made me a better liar. Although I hate lying to the extreme, it is preferable than getting slapped in the face. Hehe… my old stepmom might die of a heart attack if she learned half the things I liked. See to her, all I liked was drawing and reading. She hated, and still does, videogames. WHEN OTHERS PLAY THEM. If it's her, she's fine. Oh no, heaven forbid we play Mario, but she can play Zelda. Bullshit.

Okay, got that out of my system for the time being. Key words being 'time being'. Anyway, I don't own Transformers. Yes, good, on we go.

-:-

Optimus Prime let his gaze wander around the hanger he was in. After the Chicago incident, the human species had been made aware of their existence, though he was grateful in a sense that they could still get around unnoticed.

After the battle, the Autobots had remained on alert in case a rogue Decepticon decided to show up. However, none had appeared as of yet. However, they had picked up a strange energon reading in the North West part of the continent. Unsure of what it was, Optimus had sent out Nova, a young femme who had little battle experience, aside from what happened in Chicago. All this was just a scouting mission for the time being, until otherwise stated.

Ratchet, the CMO, had watched how the energon reading moved, and had deduced that it was in fact a human, as it moved too slowly for a Decepticon or Autobot.

However, Nova had left a week ago, and after a day of trailing the signature, she had reported back. The signature appeared to be on a human teenage girl, a shy one with a caring heart who apparently was under constant surveillance, according to Nova.

Upon Ratchet's insistence, the girl was to be brought without trouble to their base. However, the girl couldn't legally leave her country, as the Autobots soon found out from their human allies, without a passport.

And while it would seem best for the Autobots to deal with the situation, the only way was to give the task to the humans.

The Prime leaned down so that he could get a little closer to one of NEST's team leaders, a man named William Lennox, though most people called him Will, or Lennox, depending on how they knew him. The two leaders began talking, trying to figure out a strategy to get the human teen across the border and to Washington.

A little ways away, a pair of twin Cybertronian brothers were being kept under a watchful glare of two mechs, Ironhide and Ratchet. The twins had a mixture of smugness and annoyance on their face plates, occasionally trying to get away, only to be dragged back.

The only way to tell the difference between the two was that one was silver, and the other gold. The gold one was occasionally sending glares back at the two holding him and his twin hostage, as his paint was now chipped and he had obtained a few dents while trying to get away.

The silver one was still none too pleased with the situation, but unlike his twin, he didn't care as much about his appearance than he did. He did, however, laugh at what had gotten them to be under the watch of the two crankiest, in their opinion, bots on base.

It was just a simple prank, one that had no 'bad' effect, aside from annoying the two mechs watching them. Sunstreaker, the gold twin, was more delicate in his work, so he was the one how had managed to fill Ironhide's cannons with glitter, something the older mech wouldn't let near him unless it was from Annabelle, his ward's sparkling.

Sideswipe, the silver twin, had decided to dump a bonding liquid called glue all over Ratchet's tools and dumped cotton balls on them.

While it wasn't overly spectacular in the realm of pranks, it was still something, considering the limited supplies they were allowed access to. Lucky for them, Annabelle had been visiting the base earlier that day, and had wanted to pretend to be Tinkerbell, which meant tons of glitter, and cotton balls glued onto her shoes.

Ironhide was still occasionally blowing glitter from his cannons, and Ratchet still had pieces of fluff stuck to his tools, but most of the evidence was gone, aside from any injuries the twins had sustained while being chased.

Both twins standing with their arms crossed, they were both surprised and joyed that Optimus had called them over, getting them away from the still cross mechs.

"Whatchya need, Optimus?" Sideswipe said, looking at their leader. Sunstreaker just nodded after his twin.

"I require you two to go along with some of the humans and Ironhide to retrieve the young human. She needs to be brought here before any Decepticons find her. And no harming humans intentionally, Sunstreaker," the Prime said, finishing by staring at the gold twin.

The gold twin raised an eyebrow at the Prime for a nanosecond, but quickly returned to his neutral expression from before.

"You will meet Nova there, and she will inform you when the best time to talk to the human is. I have been informed that she is under almost complete surveillance from her parental units." The Prime turned away to go talk with Ironhide. In truth, only two bots would have been sufficient, but he felt the twins needed to be watched, especially Sunstreaker, with his dislike of the human race.

At the mention of Nova, Sideswipe's mood visibly improved, much to his twin's annoyance. It was plain as sky to him that the two would eventually end up a bonded pair, but they seemed ignorant to the fact that they had feeling for one another.

It wouldn't bother Sunstreaker, except that he and his brother shared a split spark, and therefore had a bond that was easy to send emotions through. Sideswipe did it all the time and it was annoying to Sunstreaker, almost as annoying as being called 'Sunny' or 'Sunshine' by his twin.

William Lennox stood beside Ironhide, silently thinking of a way to get the teen girl away from her family. From what Prime had told him, she was either at school or home, and had no social life, and was always around another person.

That would be difficult.

-:-

Crystal sat on the edge of her bed, biting her lip. In the room beside her, she could hear her stepmother yelling at her two brothers, Scott and Peter. One of them, and her gut was telling her it was Scott, had most likely back talked to their stepmother. Either that or she found an empty food container under their bunk bed, in Scott's attempt to have food.

The teen girl grimaced and began to think in her head. _He needs it, he's diabetic. How could you expect a diabetic to survive on just one bowl of corn flakes, the brow bag lunch, and one serving of dinner? _Crystal was silently steaming inside, however, after several years of living in the same house of her stepmother, she was not just shy; she had adopted a very submissive attitude towards life.

Their stepmother had a very large dominant attitude, and should one get a little courage, Crystal and Peter were usually slapped in the face, while Scott was yelled at, hit, refused a meal sometimes and had a lot of his possessions throw out.

After the yelling ceased, Crystal heard her bedroom door slam open and hit the wall. "Did you know about this?!" her stepmother yelled, holding up a Tupperware container.

Crystal shook her head and in a very quiet voice said "no".

Her stepmother gave her a glare that would have sent anyone running before slamming the door and thumping up the stairs to the kitchen to throw the container in the sink.

The teen sighed before opening her door gingerly to go see her brothers. She knew that Scott was able to handle the yelling, but Peter sat on his bunk, terrified and in tears. Without saying a word, Crystal gave Scott an apologetic look before climbing up and curling her arms around Peter.

Gently rocking back and forth, she began to hum a lullaby their mother sung when they were younger, and would still sing on occasion when they went to visit her every second weekend.

Even though their stepmom had claimed to 'love them like they're my own', the three siblings knew otherwise. It was as apparent as night and day, because the three siblings had a half-brother, a four year old named David.

David was treated different, not just because he was a toddler, but because their stepmother had birthed him, he was somehow better than the three older ones. He would always get first choice, no matter what, before even considering how the older three would feel, or even want what he chose.

It stung Crystal more than she let on. However, for Peter's sake, it seemed like she and Scott had a silent agreement that both would remain as strong as possible. Sure, there were times when Crystal would openly cry, but for the most part, she had gotten better at hiding her tears until she was alone.

Crystal had continued to repeat the lullaby, occasionally saying a few words in between, before Peter had calmed down. However, Peter was a very touchy feely person, so when Crystal tried to pull out of the hug, her younger brother latched on with dear life.

The teen took a deep breath in; there wasn't anything she wouldn't do for her brothers, all three of them. No one else knew, but it was her, her brothers and her dad who had raised David, not his mother. As much as their stepmother would like to believe that she raised her own child; that was not the case. Not when she was always out of the house aside from when something went wrong, it would seem.

As Crystal breathed out, she thought to herself, _just another normal day. Perhaps when I'm eighteen I can move out and take all three brothers with me. Anywhere would be better than here. _She didn't give a thought to how her father would feel, but then again she did resent him a little for having lived with such a horrible woman for so long, and without intervening in any way.

However, she was only sixteen, and that meant another two years of enduring this treatment before she could leave. She could handle it, she thought.

-:-

Nova sat in her alt mode across the street, listening in on what was going on in the house. All that she could hear for the past few minutes was yelling, and then a very gentle sobbing. It worried her, but she didn't know if it was customary to yell at a youngling in their culture, so she let it be for the moment.

Driving away from the housing unit, Nova made a quick trip to the nearest forest, which wasn't far from Crystal's house; there was forest everywhere. Once concealed by the trees, she changed into her bipedal mode and let out a sigh of relief; it was hard to be in her alt mode for twelve hours straight.

After stretching for a few minutes, she saw what time it was, and that it was nearly time for her to meet the team from NEST that had come to collect Crystal. Quickly getting directions to the city's airport, she changed back into her alt mode and tore through the forest before getting onto the road and traveled at the posted speed limit.

She noticed a few strange looks directed at her the closer she got to the city, but then she remembered that her holoform was turned off. Quickly switching it on, she took off down a road at a little over the speed limit.

Sitting in the overcrowded parking lot, she let her holoform walk around, to seem as though she was waiting for someone to arrive.

-:-

AN: I can't tell if this is shorter, but yeah. Here's the chapter. I had no idea how to end this, because I wanted to do more, but I honestly don't have the time. Very sad. However, the next two weeks I will not have any homework, so I hope I can write more for this or maybe for one of my other stories… but most likely this.

I seem to remember that when cotton balls were glued to things, if torn off, they leave behind some cotton that sticks straight out. Have fun getting that off your tools Ratchet, as it's a pain when damp, too.


	3. Contact

Chapter Three

AN: Yay. I'm screwed. Not really, just I really don't want to write my homework and make a PowerPoint. I'm not a social person.

Also, wasn't aware nightstep remixes existed, but I'm glad they do.

-:-

Colonel Lennox looked at his surroundings; mountains on all sides, but a flat valley lay between them. This seemed to him like a place that would be able to survive if the world was turned upside down. Farms surrounded the small town airport, leaving no room for expansion. It was a wonder how his plane had managed to land on the tarmac.

He turned to face the three Autobots that had accompanied him; Ironhide still giving the twins an evil eye. Lennox just sighed while he contemplated the best way to handle the situation. He supposed he could go and say that upon investigation the teen was a threat to both Canada's and the United States' security, but he knew that would raise all sorts of questions.

He did have permission to just take her and leave, but that didn't seem very civil. That had been Mearing's suggestion when the Autobots and NEST had told her of the situation. He wasn't overly fond of the woman in charge, but she was better than Galloway by a long shot.

Lennox looked at his feet before climbing into Ironhide. "Alright, Nova should be waiting nearby," he said to the Autobots, who drove off the tarmac and out a side entrance. While in Washington, the twins had fit in better than Ironhide by a bit, however, now that they were in a small town with forestry as its main export, Ironhide looked right at home.

The twins rolled into the parking lot, locating Nova in no time flat, she was the only purple car in the crowded lot. The femme drove over to the others and greeted them. "Lennox, I was wondering something about the way your kind raises young," Nova said as they pulled out onto the highway.

"You're not thinking of being a parent, are you?" Lennox asked, a bit shocked.

Nova nearly drove into oncoming traffic. "Primus no. I was just observing Crystal's family, and it seemed strange to me that the way the older female went about parenting. Is yelling a usual part of the system?"

Lennox looked wide eyed for all of a minute before assuming a neutral expression. "Not at all, Nova. Tell me, what else have you seen over the past week?"

"Well, Crystal got slapped in the head once, I think. Although, not as often as two of her younger male siblings. She sticks up for them as best she can, but in my opinion, the girl is scared and weak."

Lennox could only nod, storing this information in his mind to tell Prime later. "So, how many people are in this family, Nova?"

"As I've observed, two females, four males. Although they call the older female their 'stepmother'. It's a foreign concept for me, but after a quick research I did, I did not know that bonding was not final in your species."

Lennox shook his head. "Not many people now a days 'bond' for life, like you guys." He sat in the passenger seat inside Ironhide and thought for a few minutes. Perhaps he should have a chat with this stepmother of theirs. "Change of plan, we're bringing the entire family along. Sunstreaker, that means you're going to have to carry someone."

Sunstreaker groaned over the comm link. "You can't be serious? I won't hurt one this time, but if one of them so much as touches me, I make no promises."

"Look, from what we know, we can fit three people in the back of Ironhide, and that leaves three others. Only one of the siblings is barely old enough to drive, so that means that you three will need to have your holograms up."

"Can't Ironhide take up to five people in his interior?" the gold twin whined while itching to go faster through traffic.

The older mech grumbled at Sunstreaker. "Arrogant glitch. You will take a human, and that's final, or else when we get back to base I'll have Ratchet weld your aft to the med bay ceiling."

Sunstreaker inwardly rolled his optics before falling into a silent steam of anger. Sideswipe hadn't anticipated his twin being this negative towards humans, so he argued with Lennox and Ironhide that he could have two humans in his alt mode.

Lennox shot him down. "Unfortunately, the oldest, Crystal, would still need an adult. I'm sure Sunstreaker won't be difficult when we arrive."

Sideswipe snorted; the colonel had no idea of how much hate he was getting of the split spark bond at that moment. "We'll see," was all the silver twin said before falling silent.

Everyone remained that way for the rest of the trip, which only lasted about another minute before Nova pulled over on the side of the road, letting Ironhide pull into the driveway of the duplex the family lived in. Sunstreaker parked on the side of the road behind Nova, while Sideswipe pulled in behind Ironhide.

Lennox jumped out of Ironhide while the others activated their holoforms and began to walk to the front door.

-:-

Crystal sat in the living room, watching children cartoons with David, because, really, there was nothing to do. Her ears perked at the sound of two cars pulling into what sounded like her driveway. Curious, she got up from the couch and pulled back the curtains to have a glance outside.

When she saw the Corvette in the driveway, that was all she saw, ignoring every other car there. It had to be the most beautiful car she had ever seen. She had even failed to see the five people walking down her driveway and approaching the front door.

The teen was brought out of her day dreaming when the doorbell rang out loud and clear. Looking around the room for a second before registering that it was the door, she made her way to the front door and opened it and the screen door.

"Hello? Can I help you people?"

Lennox stood in front of the group. "We're looking for a Crystal Charbaneau."

"I'm listening," Crystal said, urging the man to continue.

The man nodded. "Right, we need you and your family to come with us. It's kind of important."

The teen nodded. "Uh huh," she said in a disbelieving tone. "Mary Ann! There's someone at the door!" she yelled out. Not a moment later, a larger set woman walked to the front door.

"Hello," she said, as Crystal turned to leave, returning to watching David watch cartoons, because she had nothing else to do.

"Hello," Lennox greeted. "Are you Crystal's parent?"

Mary Ann nodded. "Stepmom. How can I help you?"

"We need this family to come with us."

-:-

After several different arguments, the family of six plus Lennox were now sitting in the Autobots, on their way to the airport. The first few arguments were about why the family needed to go with the Autobots, and then after they had agreed and packed for a few days, it came down to who was carrying who.

It was Sunstreaker who had argued the most, with Sideswipe behind him in second. Sunstreaker had flatly refused to carry anyone, until he settled on carrying someone who wasn't filthy and wouldn't leave dirt in his interior. That left either Crystal or Mary Ann. After hearing what Nova had observed, he finally, after about fifteen minutes of arguing, agreed to let Crystal ride in his interior.

Sideswipe was arguing about not being able to handle one too young or too old, but had phrased his issue quite delicately; something new for him. After some debate, it was decided that he would drive with Scott, who was enthusiastic about riding in a car such as his.

Lennox and Ironhide had agreed that the two parents and the youngest would ride along with him and Ironhide, leaving Peter with Nova.

The young femme was excited at the prospect at first, until she found out how careful she had to be while driving.

Crystal walked over to the gold Corvette, mouth slightly open. "Okay, I take back what I thought about the silver one; gold looks a hundred time better."

Sunstreaker looked at the teen for a moment; it was a compliment he supposed.

"Is this custom? It looks like it. I didn't know a car could look this good. Originally I had always thought that Ferrari's were the best, but the new Corvettes are gorgeous," Crystal continued on for a moment, before catching herself and falling silent.

Sunstreaker's holoform took a deep breath before 'opening' the door and sitting down. "We haven't got all day," he said coldly, watching the teen open the door gingerly and sit in the passenger seat, holding her bag in her lap.

They drove for a few minutes before Crystal tried to make small talk, even though she hate it. "So, you seemed to already know who I am." Sunstreaker's holoform just stared at the road in front of them, not looking over at the teen. "What's your name?"

Sunstreaker tried his best to ignore her, but his twin spoke for him instead. _"Hey Sunny, you're quiet. Are you still mad?"_

Crystal showed signs of beginning to freak out, and as much as he hated humans, he thought their antics were worse. "Standard issue for our military unit," Sunstreaker said, surprising both Crystal and Sideswipe. "And as much as it will pain me, my nickname, and I use that term very lightly, is Sunny. Do not, under any circumstances, call me anything but. Got it, Crystal, Sideswipe?" He glared at the human, who nodded weakly, scared.

Sideswipe made a whining sound that Crystal heard. _"Fine, Sunny."_

Sunstreaker grit his holoform's teeth together. He was going to regret this, he just knew it.

"Who's Sideswipe?" Crystal asked quietly, as if she was testing if it was safe to talk.

"My twin."

Crystal nodded slightly. "Is that his nickname? Is that how bad his driving is? Did he sideswipe a lot of cars?"

Sunstreaker looked at Crystal for a moment. "You could say that, yeah." It was a lot easier to go along with what the teen had said than try to explain what the actual truth was.

"Okay," Crystal replied and fell silent, content with the answer she was given.

The rest of the ride to the airport has quiet, except for the few times Sideswipe would use a private channel to talk with Sunstreaker. The gold twin had cooled off a little, but was still displeased that he had to transport a human.

Sideswipe knew that it would take a while for Sunstreaker to get back to his normal self, but for the time being, it was the best they could do.

-:-

Mearing walked back and forth between Autobots and humans alike, trying to get everything organized. Just moments ago, they had been told that the plane had landed, and the Autobots were returning, which left her very little time to organize everyone so that not everything was given away immediately. With her feeling of control finally restored, she leaned against a railing observing the Autobots that were in the hanger.

All of them had changed to their alt modes, as they had thought it best not to overwhelm the teen girl. The Autobots in the room consisted of Optimus Prime, Ratchet, Prowl and Chromia. The others were off somewhere else, and Bumblebee was off with Sam Witwicky for the time being.

Only Optimus and Ratchet had their holoforms active, going over some things with the humans that worked in that room. It didn't take them long to get several things organized, but just moments before the team returned, Optimus Prime had received a message from Lennox, stating that it had been easier to bring the entire family, rather than just the teen.

He had no time to relay this information to Mearing, for in the next minute, Ironhide, Sideswipe, Sunstreaker and Nova rolled into the room. As the humans exited the vehicles, Mearing's expression changed from a cool calm into something similar to anger.

She confronted Colonel Lennox as soon as she could. "What is this? I gave you permission to bring one person, not an entire family."

Lennox looked at Mearing. "I know that's what we set out to do. However, it was impossible to get her to move without the entire family."

Mearing gave Lennox a cold stare before turning and walking off. Sighing, Lennox went to go find Ratchet's holoform, only to see him already talking with Crystal.

"Have you ever experienced any energy bursts?" Ratchet asked, trying to get information that could help him figure out what was going on.

Crystal merely shook her head in response to most of Ratchet's questions. Why she was so interesting to him she had no idea, but she was no stranger to doctors, having had brain surgery when she was five.

However, she didn't want to upset the doctor, so she remained silent, listening to his questions and answering them with a quiet voice.

Ratchet sighed. She did have an energon signature, but what had caused it he couldn't figure out. Unless something happened in her early years, in which he would have to talk to the parents, and not Crystal. Taking a breath in, he approached Crystal's father, who answered all the questions he had. The only thing that could have happened was something during the brain surgery. But that seemed highly unlikely, given their presence on this planet wasn't until a few years after.

Frowning at having not gotten anywhere in his investigation, he glanced over at the younglings running about. In a few minutes, Sideswipe was being chased around by Scott, Peter, David and Nova, although David soon gave up as his tiny frame couldn't keep up.

Sideswipe, deciding the humans had given a good enough chase, feigned being out of breath so that the two younglings could tackle him to the ground, Nova just standing to the side. The three wrestled on the ground for a few minutes before a few people and bots, especially Sunstreaker, yelled at them to get up since the floor was filthy.

Sideswipe shrugged before thinking up another activity he could engage Crystal's brothers in, this time including the youngest, David. Observing his surroundings, he decided that they could play a human game called hide and seek, as there were plenty of places to hide in the room they were in.

Crystal was about to run over and join them when a hand on her shoulder stopped her. She looked up and it belonged to a man she had been introduced to as Orion. She gave him a questioning look, but was led silently back to where the others were. Shrugging her shoulders in defeat, she walked back in silence.

Optimus, who Crystal knew as Orion, looked at the girl. He could see nothing different with her than what was usual of her kind, which made him wonder even more why she was putting off such a strange energy.

Sighing, he led Crystal back to the others, away from her brothers. He could tell that she was worried about her siblings; the twins tended to display this kind of behaviour when separated for a long time, or when the other was hurt. "They will be fine," he said, startling Crystal.

The girl gave a half smile with not much effort put into it. "If only that were true," she said in a hushed tone as she looked at how big the room was. "Why you need a ceiling that high I have no idea."

-:-

AN: Done. Yay. At around 2k words I was feeling like I was losing my pace, but then right after, I got super excited for writing the last part. Mostly because I can see my brothers wrestling with Sides. And then Sunny getting dragged into it somehow. Yay. Now, can tomorrow (really today, but as I haven't slept, it's tomorrow) just fall off the face of the earth? I don't want to do college work and then present it. : (


	4. Bonds

Chapter Four

AN: Guess what, I survived the presentation, and didn't break down in tears. Yay. I may have been frozen on the spot for a few seconds, and was shaking like Rumble was just behind me afterwards, but I got through it and possibly failed.

So here's a big one for ya.

-:-

Sideswipe had to admit, Crystal's oldest younger brother was an expert at the human game hide and seek. The first round, Scott had to come out. The second round had been David searching, so the other three made it easier for him. Then back to Sideswipe, who had underestimated the four year old.

The mech had found Peter and David, and Scott was still nowhere to be found. Sideswipe had to admit, it was easier using his holoform than using his actual body, but then again, he wasn't allowed to use his actual body. He had searched behind everyone who was in the room at the time, had searched under tables, behind chairs, and had still come up empty handed.

Nor was he near any of the machinery, on an observation deck above or trying to blend in with all of the people on the ground surrounding Crystal.

Just as Sideswipe was about to call it a draw, he noticed Prowl's alt mode move forward about five feet, exposing a fourteen year old lying flat on his stomach. Smirking, Sideswipe walked over to the teen before he could realize his cover had moved.

"So, Scott, I wouldn't stay under there for too long. Don't know where Prowler's been," Sideswipe said, causing the teen to curse before he noticed that he could just sit up. He knew that he would get in trouble for making that comment about the second in command, but how else would he go about getting Scott out of there.

Laughing, the two of them plus David hid once more as it was Peter's turn to seek them out.

-:-

A few hours had passed since the family had arrived at the base, and Crystal was still in the dark as to why they were there. What in the world could the US military want with her, a simple person who did nothing out of the ordinary and generally refused to talk to strangers.

Most of the things that were being talked about around her went over her head, as she didn't understand one bit of it. She kept looking behind her, watching her brothers playing with someone, though she wasn't exactly sure who it was. That set her on edge; not so much for Scott, but definitely for Peter and David.

Sure, the person was one of the people who had taken them from Canada, but she knew nothing about them. They seemed to know what they were doing, taking it easier when it was David's turn to seek, but she also knew that David was abnormal in the sense where he was more mature than others his age. He had an excellent vocabulary, great sentence structure, and the only word he mispronounced was 'hamburger', saying it like 'hangerber' instead.

After a few more rotations in turns, it was again David seeking. Seeing that her parents were busy talking with the man who had traveled with them, and no one was actually watching him, she turned her complete attention to David.

Watching him search around for the others, who had learned from the last time not to take it too easy with the little one, she noticed that Peter had stolen Scott's idea from a few turns ago and was hiding under the police car Scott had earlier.

Laughing to herself, she continued to watch David until he had gained too much speed from running and toppled over himself, landing on the floor.

The moment Crystal had seen David start to fall, she began to run to him, pushing a few people out of her way to get to her youngest brother. She ran as fast as she could, something she enjoyed doing from time to time, to her brother, who looked as though he may cry.

When Crystal got near him, she dug her heels to slow down her speed and immediately sat on the floor beside David while pulling him onto her lap. Hugging him tight, she rested her cheek on the top of his head and put some of her hair into his hand, letting him pull on it.

Sideswipe got up from his hiding spot and watched as Crystal comforted her youngest brother. When he saw this, he wasn't sure why but it seemed more parent like than sister like; as was when she was watching him earlier.

Had she been a parent before? It seemed unlikely given her age, but he had observed ones younger than her bearing children on the internet, as earth's data net was called. Intrigued, he went to approach and ask her, but was hesitant the moment he saw Ratchet's holoform approaching.

It appeared that he and Crystal were having a quiet argument. Ratchet was saying that the sparkling was fine, but Crystal arguing that her brother wasn't fine; physically, maybe, but she pointed out that being comforted was an important thing in a child's mind. She even held her arms out to show Ratchet that David didn't want to go anywhere.

The medic just grumbled before stalking off, muttering something about humans being an annoyingly stubborn species.

Sideswipe watched Crystal comfort David some more before standing up with him and positioning him on her hip to carry him around. The mech was noticing many similarities between her and a carrier's behavior back on Cybertron. It was unfortunate for him that he was too deep in thought to notice the teen approaching his holoform, rather quickly for someone who was carrying a child on her hip.

"So, what's your name?" she asked suddenly, getting Sideswipe's attention. Without thinking, Sideswipe said his actual name, without even thinking of how it was strange for humans. "I meant your actual name, not your nickname. Sunny told me that."

"Did he now?" Sideswipe looked at his twin's alt form; the fragger was probably just resting there, not even using his holoform. "Well, if you want to get on his nerves, he hates the name Sunshine."

Crystal raised an eyebrow. "Why would I want to annoy him? He let me ride in his car, which is probably a hundred times better than that silver one that was there that day too."

Sideswipe adopted a very hurt expression. "Hey, that's me-" he realized his mistake before elongating the 'e' into an 'I' "-ine."

The teen gave him a look of disbelief before shrugging it off. She looked down at David. "Thank you for keeping my brothers entertained, though I was a bit worried at first."

The mech was about to say something before he saw Optimus Prime's holoform approaching. He looked his leader in the eyes before returning his attention to Crystal.

The Prime had noticed that the Autobots were growing restless sitting in their alt modes, as well as the late time of the day. "Colonel Lennox has arranged a room for your family to stay in for this night, until two more can be arranged."

Crystal nodded, walking over to her parents, where her other brothers were standing there waiting.

Lennox stood off to the side, watching the teen girl walk over with her brother on her hip, carrying him without any strain what so ever. It bothered him more than it should have, but he couldn't do anything about it.

He turned to lead the family to their shared room when he saw something he knew would happen sooner later after listen to Nova's reports. The children's stepmother, Mary Ann, stood a few feet from Scott, yelling at him for some reason unknown to Lennox.

He then noticed Crystal putting David down beside Peter before standing in front of Scott to defend her brother. Lennox watched as Mary Ann slapped Crystal across the face, causing the teen to stumble to the side.

Before the Colonel could react, he noticed that two of the Autobots had positioned their holoforms in front of Scott, crossing their arms. He looked at them, realizing that it was Sideswipe and surprisingly, Sunstreaker. The twins stood there, staring at the stepmother, Sunstreaker feeling the rage coming from his twin.

Lennox had stepped in to intervene while the twins walked off, watching Prowl's holoform stand beside the teen as he helped her steady herself. The Autobot's second in command sent a cold glance at the woman who had stuck the teen, though did nothing as Lennox was handling it.

-:-

Crystal looked around, tears rolling down her cheeks. The person who had helped her regain her balance was sitting opposite her in an office of some sort. After taking in her surroundings, she looked at her hands in her lap, refusing to look anywhere else.

The person sitting opposite her had his head in his hand, with his elbow resting on the desk. Question after question he asked her, but he got the same response every time; Crystal would shake her head defiantly and keep her gaze in her lap.

After a while, she had regained control of her emotions enough to look Prowl in the eye, she wished she hadn't. His gaze was calculating and somewhat cold, making her shrink back and look down again.

Prowl, noticing this, lessened his gaze and once again asked questions about her life, which was starting to annoy Crystal, but the teen would rather be dead before she spoke up. Looking at the girl, he decided a different approach.

Reaching into the desk and withdrawing a few pens and some paper, he pushed the items towards Crystal. "If you won't speak with me, then write it down," he said, crossing his holoform's arms against his chest.

Crystal reached for the paper and a pen cautiously before setting it in front of her, the paper twisted at a forty five degree angle for some strange reason. Holding the pen in her right hand, she looked at the ceiling for a moment before hunching over the paper, her hair falling around it, making it impossible for Prowl to read what was on the paper.

Prowl sat back, watching the teen write on the paper, sometimes stopping to write on the side of the page, before continuing again. He was counting the minutes it was taking for the girl to write what she was supposed to be saying.

As much as it would have been easier for the teen to just answer verbally, he knew that some people, and mechs, had problems relaying information through speech. It seemed inefficient at best, and a waste of time, but if it got him answers, he would accept it.

Occasionally, Crystal would glance up through her hair, trying to figure out the person before her. It was hard for her, as his eyes wouldn't give away, and he held a straight face as well as the best poker players she had observed. She smiled for a second, before continuing on writing.

Ten minutes passed, and Crystal was finally done. She pushed the paper towards Prowl, who leaned forward ever so slightly to block the overhead light from the page. He sat, reading it, with as much expression as he held before, which frustrated Crystal; she couldn't figure him out at all.

Prowl looked up at Crystal for a moment, before addressing her. "So, is this only the items you wish to tell me, or is the entire story?"

To his surprise, Crystal snorted, having worked up the courage to speak. "If you wanted my life's story, I'd write a novel and actually get published; I've had a different life, I guess. I mean, my family has the luck of if it can go wrong, it will go wrong. Especially medical wise. Like I said, I could write a book."

The teen leaned forward slightly, trying to see if she got a reaction at all; nothing. Prowl was only half listening, the other half was trying to figure out where to put her and her siblings for the night. After the display of affection, and lack thereof, he had decided that the group would be split into two; Crystal and the oldest two brothers would share a room for now, and the two adults and the youngest would share another room.

Except one problem presented itself; they only had one room actually prepared. Prowl rose from his seat, nodding for Crystal to stand as well. "Follow," was all he said before he led the way to the med bay, where Ratchet had said to bring Crystal after he was done.

The medic still wanted to ask the girl some questions, and it would give him time to figure out where to put the siblings.

-:-

"And are you sure you haven't had any pain in your chest or back?" Ratchet asked, still using his holoform.

Crystal was now crossing her arms, "No, I haven't, except if you count carrying around a four year old. And whenever I've been walking for over an hour. Can I ask why all the questions?"

Ratchet's holoform grit its teeth together. "I need to find the source of the signal that's coming from you," he said in an almost pained voice.

"What signal? Am I giving out like a radio signal?"

"Will you be quiet while I try to work?"

Crystal fell silent, drawing her knees up to her chest and hugging them close. She buried her face in them and just stared at the darkness, wanting it to swallow her up. This whole situation felt weird; she was in a different country, she knew no one but her family around her, aside from Sunny and Sideswipe, sort of, and now she found out she was giving off a signal, though she had no idea what kind of signal.

It felt worse than any of the medieval events she had attended in the past. While she didn't know anyone at those, everyone kept an eye on everyone and people were always nice, open hearted and helpful. Here she knew no one and almost everyone had a cold stare.

_Right,_ she reminded herself,_ I'm at a military base. Why am I complaining?_ She looked around at her surroundings in the med bay; nothing seemed out of place or messed up in any way, shape or form.

As she watched Ratchet's back work on something, she looked at the door; it seemed so inviting, she crept as quietly as she could to the door before opening it. Trying as hard as she could to not make a noise, she slipped through when the crack was large enough and didn't bother closing it.

Once outside the room, she started to walk forward, remembering what way she had come from. She traced her way back to the office she had been in earlier, but soon after leaving that area, she became lost when she couldn't remember which way had she come from. Going with her gut instinct, she turned right and hoped for the best.

-:-

Once all of the humans had been cleared out of the main room that didn't know about the Autobots, Optimus gave them permission to change into their bipedal mode. He was the first one to transform and stretch out his sore limbs.

Once everyone had changed, Prowl walked over to Optimus and began talking, while the twins were talking with Chromia, Ironhide and Nova, who was trying her best not to laugh while Ironhide was being talked out of attacking the twins by Chromia. Everyone was busy, not really paying attention to the doorway when someone walked in.

Optimus and Prowl were having a lengthy discussion about how long they were planning on keeping Crystal, when they heard a young voice say "robot". Both looked down and were surprised to see David standing five feet from them, nearly falling over trying to look at their helms.

Raising an eyebrow, Optimus picked up David and walked him over to the entrance which he thought he came. He was hoping that should the young one tell, that it would be passed off as a child's imagination. He set him on the ground and ever so gently nudged him to walk forward.

However, David was about to run back when a very sharp voice said his name. Crystal walked in, her vision homed in on her brother. "David. What are you doing here with no one watching? You could get hurt or worse."

She stalked over and picked up her brother, placing him on her hip like before. She was about to walk out of the room when Sideswipe spoke up, drawing her attention.

"Crystal, robots," David said, leaning in her grasps.

The teen rolled her eyes. "What, is Sideswipe playing with robots?" she asked before turning around. She first saw nothing, but then noticed that there were what appeared to be giant metal feet on the floor. Daring herself to look up, she took notice that there were several large, metal beings towering over her.

Blinking stupidly a few times, she went to back out of the room through the door but had miscalculated and hit the wall behind her instead. "Ro-ro-robots. Right, Davy. Giant ones," she said quietly, before one of them, Sideswipe, went to pick her up.

Freaking out, she attempted to run, but wasn't able to get very far because she was holding her brother. Feeling herself being lifted from the ground, she grabbed onto whatever had a hold of her while making sure she had a secure hold on David.

"This is just a bad dream. This is just a bad dream," Crystal kept on repeating as she and David were held about fifteen feet above the ground.

Sideswipe rolled his optics before walking over to Optimus, who took gave Sideswipe a look of disappointment; the Prime had wanted the situation to go over a bit different, with the humans not being picked up right away.

"Calm down, we're not going to hurt you. We're not Decepticons," Sideswipe said, before being smacked upside the helm by his twin.

"You're just going to freak them out more," Sunstreaker growled at Sideswipe.

"Is Sunshine getting a soft spot for the human?"

"At least she has better tastes than you," the gold twin said before stalking off to a corner.

Crystal looked up and saw a purple, female looking robot walk over to her. "Hey Crystal, it's me. You know, from your school."

The teen stared at the purple femme before her. "Noelle?"

"It's Nova, actually. But yeah, it's me," the femme said before holding out her hand for Crystal to climb over, but the teen didn't move.

"No offense, but I'm really scared of heights I guess. I think I'll stay here."

-:-

AN: Yay. Can I sleep now? I'm doing that weird eye twitch thing when one's eyes are too tired to stay open. Or am I the only one who does that?

Well, I know this story is being read, thank you everyone. But maybe more reviews? I know my brother promised one, but even he hasn't done that. But that's okay. I can handle that. Loving the faves and alerts though. Thanks guys.

Sky, over and out.


End file.
